disABLEd

My roommate the first week in Hong Kong rides a scooter. She is an all-star with an attitude of a saint. In Hong Kong, they do not have Americans with Disabilities Act, therefore the first day out on the town was quite the adventure. You see in HK you take the subway or train everywhere. Perhaps you get on a bus every now and then, but for the purposes of our visit the first week, we did not use buses.

When we got to the platform of a subway train, after going on about 9 lifts (elevators), we were 20 minutes behind everyone else and without a tool to get her on the train. There is about a 8 inch gap between the train and the platform and she was not about to be a daredevil.

Of course we died laughing, because humor we found is the best way to deal with these kind of situations, and it was just so ironic that we had worked so hard to get to that point and had not even considered how she was going to get on the train or that there would even be a gap. We walked around for a while to find someone to help us and 10 minutes and two trains later, we were on!







I could go on and on about what people with disabilities struggle with daily but instead I ask you to go rent a wheelchair, grab some friends, and take the ride of your life. You won't regret it! You could even make it a scavengar hunt.
Ex: How many people have we caught staring in the last 3 minutes?
How many bumps have I gone over since I got in?
Does my bum hurt?
Will someone pick me up if I try to hitchhike?

One Child Policy

If you have been to Beijing or Shanghai, you get it. Being from Houston where I thought traffic was at its worst and people were in close proximity, I have now found that Houston has met its match. And then got whipped...

In '79 China's leader decided to make a huge decision for the born and unborn. They created a policy in which families could only have one child. The rules within the policy have changed over time and I am unclear as to whether it effected every single family back in '79. Today, it effects roughly 30% of China's population. They allow minorities, rural, and other small cultures to have more than one. The minorities need growth and the rural need growth and laborers as well.

The implications of this policy are monumental. You hear about babies needing to be adopted in China and you hear little tidbits about the population growth, but until you see the amount of people and hear the stories of life in China from a local, I'm not sure it sinks in. Our guide told stories of what they use to do back in the old day. She said, "yah, back in old day, we drown our baby girls. because you know, we want boy. hahaha. we don't do that anymore. no. we don't do that now. well, some people may, but mostly we just get abortions. yah, sad right? but we want boys." Before, insurance would even cover your abortion and if your employer found out you had another baby, you would be fired most likely.

So why are there now 18 million bachelors that are not married in China and girls still fill up the orphanages?

Because families want boys who will carry on the family name, provide better labor to the family, and take better care of the parents when they are old.

Now, China has a major problem on its hand and to be honest, I am not sure China realizes that. Maybe they do, but China keeps to China, if you know what I mean...

Today, I don't think insurance covers abortion and people have a mindset of having one baby. If you want to have two however, you must pay a large fee and everything that comes with having a baby. Education, medical, and all the likes. The government is not responsible for that child, in other words.

Orphanages are overloaded, men are without wives, the population is incredibly unbalanced, and grandchildren have huge responsibilities now on their shoulders because China does not have a great social security system. What ever will China do?

pakistani loves

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."

pakistani's come because they seek refuge
because they have family here
because there's more opportunity
because they are possibly fleeing war, famine, violence, etc.
because there's better education
these kids know 3 languages and struggle more than i'll ever know. they are all out of school because of the swine flu. i've been having so much fun with them at night because i have been working until 10pm most nights. they are right there with me dancing, laughing, and playing. telling me all about bollywood videos, IM chatting, and everything muslim. i love every second of it. especially the little boy. he is a firecracker.

they gave me permission to show these pictures to my friends.

Buddha

here, they love Buddha.

(which is really hard for me to spell

because i get my b's and d's mixed up,

so it looks like Dubbha. no disrespect)

they love him so much

they built the biggest one in all of Asia,

which sits on a large mountain in HK

he is really big



you have to take this to get to him

and the Buddhist Monastery that also is there

oh and the many tourist stands



but don't worry that it crashed about a year ago

because if i died, i was in good company



who, once she got her feet wet

walked around the cable car

to take pictures

like it was no big deal

even when it rocked

but i won't mention any names.

and then i took a picture like this

and someone said,

"this place is suppose to be sacred, how can she do that?"

and i screamed,

"yeah, cause they just sold me icecream like 3 steps away,

and there selling clappers 10 steps away"

ok, so maybe i didn't say that

but i thought since she was offering up her box,

i could offer up my icecream

but i guess i was wrong.

it is a gorgeous place and

when you come to visit

i'll take you there

and we'll go to starbucks


and talk all things religious

infection

I had my first day of work yesterday! I made it through a two hour meeting then my supervisor made me go to the doctor. I've had some lovely stomach issues the past couple days and I guess they figured it out when I used the bathroom every 10 minutes during the meeting. New people would come into the meeting and say, "Hi, I'm _____, I hear you're sick". It was fabulous.

But then my body started to really ache and I was unable to turn my neck. I left willingly as I had resigned to believing that I had the swine flu. No joke. I had all the symptoms and I'm from America so most people think I have it anyway. I took an hour bus ride home, which may have been the loneliest bus ride to date. I thought of all the different ways I was going to have to contact people in Houston and let them know I was quarantined in a hospital in HK.

I get to the doctor who informed me with her wise stethoscope that I had a gastrointestinal infection with no fever. YAY! I kept being like, "but my gums hurt really bad and I can't turn my neck." And she was all like, "yeah you have a stomach infection." And I'm all, "oh, right, because that makes sense."

She said I probably got it from something I ate. Weird, me getting sick in a foreign country from something I ate? Never happened before, well except for the last time I went out of the country and almost died. But, I am better now.



could it possibly have been something like this?




or




Because we ate like this every meal. I'm not sure my body is use to consuming that much food, which is what I told the doctor was my problem and she said that I was wrong. Now that I am back in HK, my body is lucky if it gets a banana for dinner. That may change because I actually feel like eating again.

I slept about 10 hours last night and feel like a new person. By the way, HK has a rockin health system and I paid about $15 US to see the doctor for 30 minutes and get 3 different medications!

The Great Wall

Hong Kong Haven

In the words of James Taylor, I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain, I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end, I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend...

Hong Kong is China for dummies. Having it really easy the first week in Hong Kong and then moving to explore the Mainland was interesting to say the least. Because Hong Kong is Americanized with its clean toilets, nice hotels, malls, and wonderful subway systems one can easily be blocked from the poverty and struggle of its citizens.

Mainland China is a different story. Although we were on a government tour for most of the time, you can see and if your listening closely to the guides that equality is yet to exist. Smog and overcrowding however, exists in both.

Exhibit A

The whole time I struggled with feeling guilty, blessed, cursed, outraged and encouraged. There is joy in the people (as always when you visit poverty stricken places) but from what I have seen, their system relies heavily on the American people. With all our money, we buy what they make. Its simple economics really. They are brilliant inventors, hard workers, and daily sacrificers. As simple as it is, its very complicated because people are involved.

We were lead through a silk factory, jade factory, pearl factory, rug factory, tea factory and possibly others I cannot recall at the moment.


]


It was a great experience to see how things are made, but I can’t help but think this is not the real situation in China. This is the situation in which they want the foreigners to see, especially since there is a huge room in which to buy things at the end of the tour. So my dilemma continues, do I buy ‘made in china’ to support their existing situation in hopes that it will get better or do I refuse and stand firm in the belief that things still need to change and until they do I will not support them. If you get in deeper conversations with any person in China about economics they will probably talk about how things changed drastically 40 years ago when Chairman Mao left office and Deng Xiaoping took over. They say he led the Chinese people to have the economic system they do today, which most would argue is drastically better than what they had before, which can be described as communist hell.

What concerns me however is there seems to be a lot of things hidden. And unless you poke and poke with questions to the guides they will act as if China is a socialist heaven on earth.

I'm thankful that I was able to experience what I did and here is a little piece I wrote one night when we got back to the hotel.

From the sights of heaven to the smells of hell I could stay in this place forever and leave tomorrow at the same time. I could picture myself joining the movement to increase social workers impact here in China or I could head back to America to continue to prove our profession is worthy of something. Worthy I guess, to be acknowledged of being a real profession. A profession that has skill, talent, care, and impact in our society. Not to prove we are right, but to ask if there could possibly be another way. I could stay and learn the language, become rich and live in a 500 sq ft apartment that costs millions or I could go back home and enjoy the empty spaces that are left in my 1200 sq ft duplex with a yard. I could stay and continue being gawked at for my white skin and big eyes or go home and just be me. I could take a orphaned baby home or I could leave the millions of them here for their own people to care for. I could choose to see only black and white about China's economic and social system or I could take a deeper look and remember that God works in all the grays and blues and greens as well.

update

Hi everyone,

This is not Jen. It is Jen's friend Ellen posting for her. Everything is ok, so do not worry. Jen wanted to tell all of you that at the moment her blog is blocked. She is still in China, visiting all sorts of fantastically enriching sites and is alive and well. Until the 15th however, she will be unable to blog because of the Chinese government and their censorship. But she did not want to leave all of you (and me) hanging. She presumes she will be able to blog again once she re-enters Hong Kong midway through the month. Until then, she sends her love.

Mainland

I am flying to mainland China today. If you don't hear from me, assume the best.

Love to all.